Winter laid in her bed, trying her best to get some rest before she had to walk to Castle Rock Hospital in an hour.

When she was at home alone, her mind could never stop flashing back to the good and the bad memories in her memory vault. She cuddled up to her big pillow as her mind wouldn't shut off.

"Henry, I don't get it..." twenty-seven year old Winter took off her jacket and set it on the chair.

This was the week before she left Henry.

"Whenever I'm not here, you're drinking. I know that you're still coping with your dad, Will and Jim dying, but it's been almost two years, babe. How long are you going to keep drinking? I miss the way things were before you drank. I want to start planning our wedding again," Winter said concerned.

"I know!" Henry said frustrated at himself, "I'll quit, baby."

"No, he won't..." Ace smirked in the corner of the kitchen.

Henry stared at him as the ghost looked Winter up and down seductively. Winter didn't see or hear him, she never saw them, unless she was in the middle of sleep paralysis and she never knew if that was real or in her head.

Winter softly put her index finger on Henry's chin and turned his face so he would look at her instead of the corner of the room.

"I thought you said that they're not around when I'm here?" Winter asked him.

"They're usually not..." Henry said frightened.

Winter kissed his lips softly. She could taste the alcohol on his lips, but she loved him so much that it never affected her. The only thing she didn't like about the drinking was that he felt that the only way to escape the ghosts was to drink, and it really was affecting his personality and life. There was so much pain and depression, and Winter felt so bad for her man, but wanted him back to his normal self so badly.

Henry began to shed some tears as he put his forehead to hers and placed his hand on her cheek, "I want them gone so bad, baby. I want our normal lives again. If you're not here with me, they're trying to get in my head. The alcohol shuts them out a bit, but it's not working like it use to. It's only when you're here with me, I feel kind of normal again."

Winter put her hand in the back of his head and scrunched his messy brown hair in her hand. She kissed his lips over and over as she began to cry herself. "We'll figure it out, babe." She hugged him as tight as she could as he cried into the side of her neck, "I'm here. I'll always be here with you."

Yet, here she was laying in her own bed in her own apartment in another state. She had left the moment it became too dangerous when Henry threw the bottle of alcohol at her by accident. Winter's conscious swam with guilt for leaving, but it seemed like the best thing to do at that time. Now it's been four years since she last saw or talked to Henry, and she missed him so bad everyday. She felt like a grief-stricken widow.

Winter grabbed her pillow and put it against her face as she screamed and cried, wishing she could just hold the love of her life again.

Later on that day, Winter was working at the hospital in the emergency unit. One of the only times that she felt like her thoughts and emotions were clear of darkness was when she was working.

She had just finished working on a patient who had a broken wrist. As she was finishing up the dismissal papers at the RN desk, she could hear the voice of a man coming from behind her in one of the rooms where a patient was waiting for an RN or doctor to check up on him.

"Mom, I told you already... I'm at the hospital... I'm going to get my hand stitched up, and I'll ask one of the doctors or nurses about my problem!" He sounded frustrated as he was on the phone with his mom. "No, I'm not thinking anymore into it! If I do, I'll probably give myself an asthma attack from the anxiety! I'll figure it all out later... That's it! Okay, mom... Okay, I'm hanging up now!"

Sheila, one of the RN's working at the desk sighed, "That patient is so high-maintenced. A true Hypochondriac. I'm just glad he doesn't come in with his mom or wife anymore."

Winter snorted, "He sounds pretty anxious."

"Winter, he's here all the time. He's always anxious... If you only saw how big his file is, you would be shocked!" she rolled her eyes. "Are you going on your break now?"

"Yeah, I probably should," Winter looked at her phone for the time.

"Great! I'll go on break when you come back. As for now, I must suffer looking after Mr. Kaspbrak for the millionth time," Sheila sighed as she grabbed the chart.

Winter's eyes went wide at the name, "Who? You don't mean Eddie Kaspbrak?"

Winter thought about her skinny, baby-cute, germaphobe best friend in high school. She remembered how his dorky personality would make her smile. For a kid who was younger than her, he sure knew how to grab her attention with his enthusiastic facial expressions and goofy dance moves that always made her laugh.

"You've treated him before, too?" she asked unenthusiastically. She let Winter see the chart, "He's in for stitches today. He fell outside shovelling his mom's driveway and cut his hand pretty deep."

Winter looked at the chart.

Name: Edward Kaspbrak

Date of Birth: September 3, 1981

"No friggin' way!" Winter said to herself as she realized that it was her friend from high school. Now that she recalled, out of the seven of her friends, he was her favourite to hang out with. Winter looked at Sheila, "How about I take my break after I look after him? I've known him since high school. I've basically been his nurse since we were in school. He won't be high-maintenced for me."

"Hey, If you want to deal with him, then go right ahead. At least his mom or wife isn't here... They are the worst people I've ever met in my life. They think he has every allergy in the world..." she shook her head disapprovingly. "When you're done with him, go on your break."

Winter softly smiled at her, "No worries."

Winter took the chart and pushed open the door of the room Eddie was in. He hadn't looked up as he was texting on his Blackberry with one hand as the other was wrapped in a bandage.

Winter looked at him as he sat on the bed in his buttoned up green shirt and dress-pants. His hair was brushed back. His face was definitely Eddie's, just older, and he looked better with age.

She closed the door behind her and smiled at him, "Hey there, Edz! How's it going?" she asked as if she only saw him at school yesterday.

Eddie looked up from his phone annoyed, "No one calls me..." His eyes went wide when he noticed it was Winter Callaghan who was wearing a sweater and scrub pants with his charts, "Holy shit!" he said as he stared her up and down in shock.

He was at a loss of words. This was the girl - woman - he had a crush on in high school, who he hasn't seen in about thirteen-fourteen years. She was standing right in front of him. The first thought that crossed his mind when he saw her was that she was the first woman he had ever seen naked, and she was the first woman he ever had a sexual fantasy about after he saw her and Henry having sex in the Barrens fifteen years ago. His mind also wandered to that one day in the library when the whole town of Derry was scared of the child-eating clown (but that is a flashback we will get into another time). He had based his ideal woman he wanted to marry from her, however it backfired in his face when he married a woman who was almost exactly like his mother.

They both were silent as Winter waited for him to say something to her. For someone who was just talking on the phone non-stop and never stopped talking in high school, she knew he must have been in shock.

"Winter?" he finally spit out. "You're here? Working?"

Winter giggled at his expression, "Yeah, I work here part-time."

His eyes continued to look her up and down, observing her adult hour-glass shape as her hips and butt were shaped perfectly and her breasts had grown a little bit. He admired her long brown hair with the caramel highlights and thought she looked beautiful with her think-rimmed glasses and little stud above her lip. She looked like a professional, yet edgy, nurse.

"Holy shit! Come give me a hug!" he smiled admiringly at her.

Eddie got up to his feet and wrapped the one arm around her that didn't require stitches as she wrapped both her arms around his shoulders.

The first thing Eddie did was sniff her hair. She still smelled like strawberries and vanilla. The next memory of her that crossed his mind was when they were talking to each other before they went into the sewers that traumatizing day when he was fifteen and she was seventeen. He could recall the butterflies in his stomach as she touched the side of his head and told him that she always looked at him as a man. Even to this day, he didn't feel like the masculine man like her high school sweetheart was, but just the way her hands would feel on his body made him feel masculine. Hugging her didn't feel like hugging Myra, who wore the pants in the relationship and would bring his masculinity down just by the way she talked to him. There was always that sweet feminine energy from Winter that made him feel peaceful and powerful.

Eddie kept his arm around her waist as he wanted to look at her face. He smiled at her as he tried to remember all the details about their friendship in high school.

Winter noticed how his face looked like it became longer with a stronger jawline. His smile even made him have dimples in his cheeks. She always knew he would turn into a handsome man.

Smiling, Winter lightly grabbed his injured hand, "What did you do? You fell while shovelling?"

Eddie sat back down on the bed as Winter grabbed the table to put in front of them and she grabbed a chair to sit across from him. He put his right hand on the table as she unwrapped the bandages. There was a deep, but small, cut on his palm.

Winter looked at Eddie's face as he wasn't answering; He was still staring at her face.

"Edz?" she giggled.

Eddie blinked a few times, "Sorry! I'm still trying to catch up... You walking in and calling me Edz like you did in high school just threw me right off."

Winter grinned, "I guess it has been about thirteen years or so..."

Eddie, still perplexed, smiled at her, "You look amazing. You always looked great, but I'm so caught off guard now that I'm blushing..." he laughed.

"Well, don't make me blush, I need to fix your hand," she touched her cheek as it became warm; He laughed in response. "But look at you, Edz. If you looked like this in high school, I may have taken double glances at you in the hallways," she teased.

Eddie laughed more. He seemed so giddy and thrown off his game by her being there. He was noticeably blushing.

'Wow... What a really nice laugh and smile...' She thought to herself.

"Don't mind me..." he smiled adoringly at her, "You can stitch me up, but I might be awkwardly staring at you the entire time."

Winter laughed and began disinfecting his wound. He was right when he said that he would be staring at her the entire time. Not once did he look down at his hand to see the job she was doing.

"How long have you been working here? I thought you were becoming a Veterinarian? I have so many questions!" he smiled.

Winter giggled as she looked from his hand to his face, "I've been working here for two years now. I also work casually at Derry General Hospital. I'm also an at-home nurse for an older lady in the city. I was a Veterinarian for about six years in Pittsburgh. When I moved to Castle Rock, there wasn't much demand in the field. So, I spent a couple of years getting my RN license, and now here I am today stitching your hand..." she looked to his face and smiled. "How about you? What do you do?"

"It doesn't surprise me that you would be working as a nurse. You always knew what to do to fix us up as kids," Eddie smiled, "I own my own business. It's a limo company, and my business runs in almost every state."

"Good for you, Edz!" Winter said, happy that he was his own boss, "Do you live in Castle Rock?"

"I live in Rumford, Maine... Just the next town over, it's about a twenty minute drive from here. I moved here from New York three years ago when I wanted less of the big city life and wanted to move back home. Well, not exactly home, since Derry is about two hours away, but I wanted to be back in Maine," he smiled.

Winter nodded, "Very cool. I see you got married?"

Eddie didn't want to talk about his wife. He just nodded and shrugged, "I did, but we're separating."

He didn't mention that he had only decided to leave Myra a few days ago. What were the chances that he would run into his childhood crush just a few days after telling his wife that he wanted to seperate?

"Oh..." Winter looked up at him. She said compassionately, "I'm sorry to hear about that."

"It's okay!" he smiled at her, "I'm living with my mom now until I can find my own place."

Winter smiled at him as she continued to stitch his hand, "As long as you're happy, right?"

"Did you and Henry get married? You guys probably have, like, ten children? Twenty?" he joked as he took a sip from his coffee.

Winter continued to look down at his hand; She really didn't want to get into what she felt was the worst decision of her life; "No, we broke up four years ago."

Eddie choked a little bit on his coffee as he wasn't expecting her to say that.

Winter looked up to his face as his cough calmed down. "Are you okay, Edz?" She tried not to smile as all his expression on his face seemed comical in a heartfelt and cute type of way.

"Yeah... I'm just really surprised to hear about that..." he said, as he was all of a sudden extra aware of the wedding band on his left ring finger that he wanted to just rip off knowing now that her and Henry broke up.

Winter turned away to look at her medical tools and supplies on her side table. Eddie took the opportunity to take his injured hand from the table and slid his wedding ring off with a little bit of force. He shoved the ring in his pocket and quickly put his right hand back on the table.

Winter turned back to his hand and looked at the face of a man staring at her admiringly.

"Are you okay? I'm not hurting you, am I?" she asked as she continued to stitch up his wounds.

Eddie smiled, "You could never hurt me."

Although many instances crossed Eddie's mind where she did hurt him without her knowing it: Winter at seventeen years old running her hand through his hair when he was fifteen, telling him he was always a man to her, and then running off into Henry's arms as he would stand there, wishing it was his arms she was running into. Also, all those times he would dance with her, but she always would be thinking of her boyfriend.

"What happened between you and Henry?" Eddie asked, "If you don't mind me asking... The two of you ever breaking up never crossed my mind."

Winter stopped stitching and looked up to his face. Eddie could tell by how her eyes saddened that it must have been bad and she was clearly not over it.

"I don't really want to talk about it..." she told him sincerely.

He nodded understandingly, "It's fine. No pressure. It's impressive that you didn't let the split break you down. Like, look at you, you're a nurse! You're successful!"

'You don't know how broken I am, Edz... You don't see me alone in my home... There is no home without Henry...' Winter thought to herself.

"I'm also studying to become a doctor," Winter added in with a soft smile.

"Jesus Christ!" Eddie exclaimed, "I always told you that you were Winter the Wonder Woman!"

Winter laughed, "That name always made me laugh even though it was super..."

"Super cheesy?" Eddie finished with a laugh, "Everything tastes better with a little cheese on it!"

Winter bursted out laughing, "I will never understand how you're not a comedian! Richie barely ever made me laugh, but you always cracked me up!"

Winter realized that it was the first time she mentioned Richie in years. It felt so weird talking about her old friends from high school.

"That's because Richie's sense of humour was dry and he was an asshole. You obviously prefer the goofy sense of humour. That's one thing I observed about you from our high school days," he smiled.

Winter looked up at his face, impressed that he actually knew that about her, which is something she never knew about herself, "Yeah, I guess you're right. I never realized that."

"We should go for coffee and catch up!" Eddie suggested enthusiastically. He was really happy how this small reunion was going, even if it was in the hospital.

Winter smiled and nodded at him. She really wanted to catch up with her old friend; "Yeah, that would be fun."

"Fun?" Eddie questioned with his eyebrow raised, "I don't think I've heard that word before. What does that mean?" he joked.

He was obviously hinting that being an adult sucked and there was no fun involved.

Winter giggled and looked up at him, playing into his joke, "Well, I hear the hipster teenagers saying that word all the time. I think it means that you should forget about all the shit happening in your life and basically say fuck it."

Eddie laughed as he pulled up a definition on his phone, "Webster's dictionary definition of 'Fun'!" he exclaimed as he continued, "'Fun: What provides amusement or enjoyment'!"

Winter looked at him with a questionable look, "I don't even know what those words mean. Amusement? Enjoyment? It all sounds like gibberish to me," she joked.

He looked at her and shook his head jokingly, trying his best to look serious, "Well, I guess I could try to fit some of this 'fun' thing into my agenda. I don't know if my old man mind and body could handle all this fun, though."

Winter giggled at his comical serious expression, "Shut up, Edz! I'm older than you!"

He laughed as he stared her in the eyes. It was the first time in a long time that the both of them were laughing and forgetting about their own personal problems.

"I take it that your life is shitty, too?" Winter asked him.

"I'm actually president of the shitty life club. We are accepting new members if you would like to join?" he joked. "I would love to have a friend in the club."

"Now that you bring it up, how come it's so effin' impossible to make friends as an adult? Have you noticed that, or is it just me?" Winter asked.

"I know! I haven't had any friends since high school. I had some in university, but I have no friends in this stage of my life..." he said, "Wow! Our lives really are shitty!" He then turned his thoughtful expression into an adoring smile, "We can be friends if you want?"

Winter laughed, "Yes!"

As Winter bandaged up his hand, she proceeded in giving Eddie her number so they could go out for coffee and catch up. The thirty minutes went by very fast as the two of them continued to joke and laugh. Eddie didn't even feel a thing while she was stitching up his hand as they were both having a great time catching up.

Winter quickly looked at his chart to make sure she covered everything that he came in for. She had noticed that there was something else. Eddie had requested that he needed to talk about a personal problem when he checked in; There were no details written.

"Edz, did you need to talk about a personal problem?" Winter asked as she looked at him, open to talking about whatever he needed to discuss.

Eddie began to blush. He quickly shook his head and said, "No... No, it's okay."

Winter knew that whatever he needed to talk about, he felt uncomfortable talking to her about it.

"I won't be judging you if there's something you really need to talk about, Edz. Unless, maybe you want me to get another nurse or a doctor to talk to you instead?" she suggested.

"No..." he smiled uncomfortably. "Don't worry about it, Winter... I had such a great time with you, that I don't want to kill my mood by bringing it up."

She softly smiled, "Okay... If you need to talk about anything, you have my number."

He softly smiled at her. He couldn't stop admiring how beautiful she was inside and out.

Winter walked Eddie towards the exit doors of the hospital.

Before he left to go on with the rest of his day, he turned to her, "I'll text you, and hopefully we can get a coffee soon!"

"Awesome, Edz! Sounds fun!" she smiled.

He gave her a comical smile and pointed at her with his phone in his hand as he said, "There's that word again!"

Winter watched Eddie as he walked away. It felt good to have her best friend back in her life. She couldn't help but wonder if they were flirting. The idea of Eddie flirting seemed impossible as he was such an awkward dorky kid in high school... But the way he was interacting with her was similar, yet different, then the awkward dorky kid in high school. His dorkiness as an adult was rather charming.

Winter shook her head at the question of whether he was flirting with her or not, "Nah!"